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Home > Guides > Throwing Away Mail
Yes. Once mail is delivered, it's a federal matter: destroying someone else's mail can be a crime in both the US and Canada, even if the person moved out. The safe move is always the same. Write "Not at this address, Return to Sender" on the envelope and put it back in the mail stream.
This is general information, not legal advice.
| What you do | How the law sees it |
|---|---|
| Throw it in the trash unopened | Destruction of mail: a federal offense in the US, an offense under postal law in Canada |
| Open it, then throw it away | Two problems: opening someone else's mail is separately illegal, and destroying it adds another |
| Mark it "Return to Sender" and re-mail it | The correct move: no offense, and the sender gets it back |
| Keep it or use what's inside | Theft, on top of the mail offenses |
Both are illegal, and they're covered by different rules. Opening mail addressed to someone else is the better-known offense: in the US it's a federal crime to take, open, or destroy mail that isn't yours, and Canada's postal rules similarly protect the privacy of addressed mail. Destroying it without opening it is still destruction of mail, which the law treats as its own offense. People sometimes assume that not reading it makes it harmless. It doesn't. The offense is about interfering with someone else's mail, not about what you learned from it.
Intent matters in how seriously it's treated. Tossing one misdelivered flyer is unlikely to draw the same attention as systematically destroying a former tenant's bills or tax documents. But the line isn't "it was an accident once," it's whether you meant to get rid of mail that wasn't yours. When the mail keeps coming, deal with the root cause instead of the pile.
This is the scenario that fills advice columns. Your ex-roommate moved out six months ago, their bank statements keep arriving, and the trash can looks tempting. Don't. The fact that they no longer live there doesn't transfer ownership of their mail to you, and "they should have filed a change of address" isn't a defense.
The fix is boring and effective. For the first few pieces, write "Not at this address" or "Moved, Return to Sender" on each envelope and drop it back in a mailbox or hand it to your carrier. That endorsement tells the post office to send it back to the sender, who then learns the address is stale. If it's a flood, contact the sender directly when you can identify them: one call to the bank or subscription company stops more mail than a year of endorsements. In Canada, you can also hand misdelivered mail to any Canada Post retail outlet.
It depends on why you have it. If it was misdelivered to your address by mistake, put it back in the outgoing mail or hand it to your carrier with a note. Don't write on it beyond a simple "delivered to wrong address" if you want to keep it clean. If it's addressed to someone who used to live there, use the "Return to Sender" endorsement described above. If it's addressed to a previous tenant and keeps coming after months of returns, a brief note to your local post office can help, since carriers can flag the address.
What you should never do is open it "to find out who to contact." Opening it to be helpful is still opening someone else's mail. The envelope already tells you everything you need: the sender's name and return address are right there on the outside.
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